The Reya War
by General Glym
Summary: In the grim darkness of the future there is always war. Mankind controls many stars but this control is not unthreatened. Many worlds suffer the same fate of destruction. The Imperial Guard and it's many unknown heroes must prevent this fate. This is
1. Default Chapter

Firstly the disclaimer stuff: I don't own Warhammer 40K as I would have thought obvious but I have as far as I know I created all characters so I think I can claim ownership of them. This is the intro to a series I'm going to do send in reviews please if you don't like it say so and don't read on somebody might like it though.J

**Introduction**

"This is shite." Bist muttered. "Bunch of bloody gun-babies"

"Well, sir, this is your first command."Replied the vox-operater Silgan. "Plus they're not all new recruits. You've got me and Prett." Indicating the platoon's chief gunner.

"Well I suppose you do have a point there. But the rest of them......" Said the sergeant "Then again they might be okay come battle."

Bist normally wasn't this annoyed but a few things were annoying him right now. Firstly he had just received a promotion after the battles on the jungle world Fenapis, that was a good thing, but he traded his arm for a stripe which didn't seem an overly fair trade to him. On top of this his first squad were mainly raw recruits except for three veterans: Silgan, a medium sized Catachan with unnaturally good hearing and a knack for anything electrical, Prett, a short Cadian with strength like a Trojan who was a crack shot with anything that weighed more than half his body weight, and of course Bist himself a middle-aged soldier in his late fifties from Cadia who favored the plasma pistol. Apart from that every other trooper in his command was fresh from the bastions of Cadia or the jungles of Catachan. This made the regiment special it was made up of men from two different worlds, three if you wanted to be specific enough and include the general no-one was sure where he was from. The regiment had been mixed ever since a great war on the ice world of Polas Majora four years back against the Tyranids. On Polas Majora the Cadian 13th and Catachan 22nd were sent to annihilate the "small" infestation. It turned out someone had been very very very vague about the size. By the time the Space Marines had arrived on the astropath's message (one standard week) the majority of the command staff were dead, due mainly to a surprise strike on the command HQ by a small amount of gene-stealers. Who were successful because most of the command staff thought they were safe and didn't have weapons close at hand. Most of the men were dead as well and therefore merged together by a young captain, who was to be promoted to general afterwards, into one regiment. That was how it stayed with the general taking command.

Apart from that the regiment had been told where and when they would next be stationed. They would be stationed at Reya within the next two weeks. Apparently a hive-world which was apparently, usually, an exciting place. Right now it was being attacked by the arch-enemy of man the Chaos. The whole regiments feelings were summed up by the Catachan veteran sergeant Afagis: "This really sucks dick!" Bist had fought in hive-wars before he'd fought in jungle wars, ice-wars, desert wars, frigate wars and just about every known war too, but he always knew that each one could be his last. With the experience his platoon his last battle was likely to be Reya. By the looks of things these men had never held a weapon of any description, well being honest the Cadians knew very well how to use a lasgun and the Catachans could probably gut an Ork in a second with the twelve inch blades they all carried. None of them however had seen battlefield action and that as far as Bist cared was all that mattered. If they could shoot and hunt masterfully only to run away from battle they were of no use to the Imperium or to Bist.

"Well, sir" Prett inquired, "what'll we do with them?"

The sergeant smiled. "They're going to fight a war. Train 'em up till they want to die ready them as much as you can to face the enemy"

"Yes, Sir!"


	2. The Chaos Are Here

The Disclaimer: Same as just about every other one I don't own Warhammer 40,000. Also sorry about the delay between this and the intro

The Chaos Are Here

"How did this happen so easily? Why did this happen to me?" These were the questions which he thought about day and night. "I'm a citizen of the Imperium, a loyal, faithful, honest….. Well a citizen of the Imperium anyway."

The Chaos armies had landed 10 miles from Reya Trinitus the third largest hive on Reya two days later they attacked. They captured the city within a week nine days to take over a hive-city with a population of 15 million people and an army one and a half million strong. The enemy had sent scouts ahead who had somehow managed to overcome one of the gates and subsequently destroy the whole structure. That all took less than a day for them over the next six days they charged straight through from the one gateway which they held to the top of the main spine. The reason for the city guard's lack of efficiency was obvious; they were much too busy fighting against the crime lords to attack the arch-enemy in force. Instead they fought against them in the crime-fighting detachments they were in as a result they were slaughtered by the foul sub-human life forms.

The city itself was pretty much intact the creature in command obviously saw some use for the hive or at least for the areas with substantial amounts of wealth. The poorer areas of the city lay in ruin. The upper residential areas were now securely held but the lower housing areas were only slightly patrolled.

It was in the lower areas in which the last bits of Imperial resistance held out against the Chaos.

"Ti, Ti." Whispered Grigan "what's wrong with you, are you in a trance or something'?"

"What? Oh sorry Grig, I was just thinking about how we got here." Tius muttered to his friend.

"Who here doesn't do that every day we're out here?" Replied Grigan casually waving his hand to take in the surrounding area, an old factory manager's office which the resistance unit was currently using as a command post. It was very simplistic in design, after all it wasn't exactly designed as a top hotel, but it had strong walls and the factory had enough room to hold all 200 or so resistance fighters.

"Mister Arytt, Mister Grigan." Puffed an out of breath sentry called Cuss bursting through the door. "There is a huge bunch of Chaos troopers comin' this way. Thought you should know

"Sentries?" Tius asked hopefully.

"No Mister Arytt, sir." The young sentry answered. "Sentry units are usually in squads of about five – ten all usually armed with lasguns."

"And these wankers?" Inquired Grigan.

"Somewhere between 40 and 75 I didn't do a head count and armed with grenade launchers, meltas, flamers and I think I even saw an autocannon. Search and destroy platoon I'd guess"

"Then we'd best move." Arytt said picking up his boltpistol and laspistol then pausing to adjust his carapace armour. As he ran out of the office around fifty men flocked to him knowing that something was seriously wrong. They were all armed some with las-weapons the others with auto weapons one soldier even had a flamer.

When the interception force located the enemy platoon they found Cuss' estimation far from exaggeration. Had they known of its size they would have taken extra care moving through the ruined streets they had used the buildings to the sides of course one half under Arytt, the other under an ex sergeant from the city guard named Kuert. "There were 100 men in the chaos force armed well for battle. Arytt halted his troops. Something seemed wrong he wasn't sure what but it seemed wrong. He briefly did a check on the enemy. They were packed in to what would be potentially a guerrilla paradise a squad of troops a quarter the size could annihilate them. So far the invaders had seemed more intelligent than this. It could be the stupidity of the junior officers or it could be…………………."

A scream of pain from the buildings on the other side confirmed his worst thoughts.

Kuert was knocked off his feet when the Chaos stormtrooper hit into him, the soldier behind him screamed in pain as he was cut apart by hellgun blasts at close range. By the time the sergeant had got to his feet ten of his men were dead they had been ambushed, set up. He knew he couldn't win he was surrounded and outnumbered by better equipped soldiers, but he would still kill as many as he could. He called out every inspiring line he had ever heard to the survivors to instil vigour and strength. He smashed the ribs of one of his attackers with the butt of his lasgun then shot it through the head. Kuert the discarded the rifle and fought with his knife and pistol. Running off adrenaline he killed the Chaos left and right. With three men remaining Kuert fell to the floor he looked down confused as to why only then did he realise he had taken enough damage to kill him ten times over, his legs were a mess his stomach had been hit multiple times and his chest was bleeding freely. From the ground he watched the others die. Suddenly one of the masked enemy troopers crouched over him with a large dagger in his hand.

"Fuck you." Kuert managed to croak, firing his laspistol into the killers head at the same moment its dagger pierced his heart.

"Back! Back!" Arytt shouted out. As the words left his mouth charges blew out the ceiling and walls in the next room and the ambushers emerged from their hiding places had the course the guerrillas were taking continued they would most certainly have been surrounded like the late sergeant Kuert. None the less their situation wasn't favourable. Another slaughter began Arytt's men held back against their foes for a while, but the insanity of chaos is without reason killing them had no psychological effect as it would on normal humans. Within minutes the fight was up close and bloody. Utilising every skill he had mastered fighting against other gang members and the city law guardians Arytt killed more than any other present. A man was torn to pieces by what had to be an officer of the enemy. Although he knew very little of rank insignia, the guerrilla commander knew a power claw wasn't issued to just anyone. Most others would have ran when confronted with an opponent as dangerous as this, Arytt fired both his pistols twice into its head before shooting another through the chest with his laspistol. Met with the skill and ferocity of the Imperial resistance the Chaos troops fell back almost as one. An ill timed cheer of triumph arose from the Imperialists, a volley of grenades from the enemy storm trooper's launchers. In the few split seconds before detonation there was a panic to get out the door. The resulting explosions killed many and their leader was thrown through the wall unto the street a nine feet below he lay there for a while then Tius Arytt knew no more.


	3. On the Landing Grounds

Disclaimer: Do I really need this to be put here from now on this disclaimer will go for the rest of the series got it. OK I don't own Warhammer 40k need I say much more I don't intend to make any money so don't bloody well sue me ok. Anyway on with the story

On the Landing Grounds

"Well, sir" said Silgan "It has to be said that the new recruits are coping well with the training"

"Obviously we don't know how they'll cope with actual fightin' though". Prett put in a little more pessimistically "They are still as green as the grass."

"Naturally," replied the sergeant "The same goes for just about everybody that joins the guard, except the poor bastards who join it after a war which has destroyed their homes. What are they doing right now?"

"Imitating fish, sir" answered the gunner.

"Drinking or looking round with their mouths open?"

"Both." Came the answer from the two soldiers.

"Then tell them to stop it immediately" Bist ordered with a tone of severity.

"That's not like you, sir. Why the change of attitude," Silgan found himself compelled to ask

"Because," here Bist began to whisper I've got reasons to believe that Carron is going to be coming to inspect the efficiency."

"You'd better be fuckin' joking." Prett managed without shouting.

"Not that Blue-blooded Bastard!" Groaned the vox-trooper.

"Who?" inquired one of the recruits with long hair and smoking a thick self-rolled cigarette which smelt like nothing either of the three veterans had smelled before. Or rather nothing _legal_ that either of the three veterans had smelled before.

"Colonel "Lord" Evid Carron commands the regiment and is as strict on discipline as they come. "Bist answered as the others were reeling from the aftershock of hearing of the inspection. "And on that note what the hell are you smoking!?"

"Medication." Answered the trooper, taking out a sheet of paper and showing the sergeant.

Bist flicked over the medical form, he nodded. "Yeah this is authentic alright signed by Dr. Tanil himself, Trooper Hox here is actually allowed to legally smoke obscura (So long as it is from a legal source.) To keep him sane. But listen here, trooper you better hide that and all the rest of that stuff that you have. Don't let Carron see it and not one of the Commissars **especially not** Commissar Stilan who will be coming around with Carron in about half an hour. Stilan would shoot you dead before you could even touch that form. Anyway start to look busy and tell the rest of the platoon to do the same start bayonet drills, knife drills, target practice, I couldn't give a fuck, just keep it legal and keep it sensible.

"Got it, sarge!" Hox shouted with a mock military voice and salute before putting out his half smoked joint and pocketing it for later, then walking off to look busy.

Within 20 minutes as expected an officer accompanied by a Commissar arrived to inspect Bist's platoon. The troops, as per orders were pretending to be busy with bayonet drills, knife drills and the like. On the arrival every single trooper stopped what he was doing and saluted immediately. The officer smiled and nodded in the general direction of the men then started to look for the sergeant while the Commissar spoke with a few of the soldiers servicing their kits. "Don't seem as bad as you made them out to be." Hox whispered to Silgan beside him.

"That, Silgan whispered back while servicing the heavy vox-caster" is because they aren't the ones we made out to be bad. That's Commissar Judix and General Mklure.

"General?" Bist asked.

"Why so surprised, sergeant? Or do I already know why?" The general inquired, although Bist gathered he knew the answers to both question. "I'll explain Captain Bilk and Colonel Carron were supposed to inspect the new troops and all that sorta stuff. I was supposed to greet the local command and stuff like that. All handshaking and celebrations, just isn't my scene……."

Bist laughed. "I remember when you told a Lord Militant Commander to go fuck himself for asking you where your commander was. You always were strange in addressing people you call most of your superiors by name or rank, but you address a good number of your inferiors by sir."

"Yes, I use sir as a mark of respect. So, I sent Carron to do all that stuff, he was trained at it from an early age, all your nobles seem to be. Unfortunately I do have to check how everything is, how are you finding the billets?"

"For a war zone," Bist paused in thought, "I suppose that they don't come much better." With these words he surveyed the warehouse his and 3 other platoons were sharing. "It's a shame about all these crates in the way."

Mklure laughed, then opened one of the crates with his power sword and drew out two bottles of a local drink most likely alcoholic. He handed one to Bist. "You sure about that one, Jordi."

"Perhaps not, Glym." He said pulling out two glasses.

"Sorry," The General said, "can't get pissed on the rounds Judix said it gives a bad image to the new-bloods. Oh and before I forget Bilk gave Detta permission to organize a fireworks display, you might want to take your boys round, they might learn something interesting."

"One last thing boss." Bist said. "Not complainin' but why did you give me Silgan. You said yourself that he was the best vox-operator in the regiments and he was your vox-operator for the last good while."

"Isn't it obvious?" Mklure asked as if it was. "You're a very competent platoon leader I know that. Carron wanted to give you a bunch of raw recruits. New Sergeant new men he said. I pulled a few strings and now you've got our best gunner and vox-operator."

"Well then I guess I'll go see the display. How much are the tickets?"

The "fireworks display" was beginning to start as the platoon arrived. There were at least a hundred soldiers to watch the magic. The area was a large docking plot in the middle of the storage area. Many of the newer soldiers were looking more than a little puzzled they had been told there were fireworks but couldn't see a single one in sight just an old unusable Leman Russ. Then a figure appeared on top of the turret. He had short black hair a reasonable build and an unusually pale skin complexion for a Catachan.

"Thank you for coming to this demonstration, gentlemen." He shouted to the assembled troops. "No doubt you already know or have guessed I'm Detta and despite what you may have heard I am here for the purposes of educating you. Now watch for you will only see this once, as a demo at least."

With these words he ran around the tank marking areas and describing what an explosive would do to these areas and giving handy tank busting advice. Then as if to demonstrate his teachings planted a grenade in the joint at the turret. Blowing the main cannon 7 feet into the air

"And that people," he said with a note of finality, "is how to kill a tank effectively." Then he smiled looking at stares of disbelief on the faces of just about everyone in the vicinity.

"Well then." said a familiar voice behind Bist's head. "Are your boys impressed or what? Of course as Bist here can tell ya when Detta does that trick in a battle it's even more impressive."

The speaker was the Catachan sergeant Afagis a tall, well-built sergeant with quite dark skin and eyes that it was often joked could cut as sharp as the sergeant's sword and put fear into the daemons of Chaos. His character was just as dangerous as his appearance. He was renowned for the killing of an Ork Warboss in a one on one fight. Because of occasions like this he had been known to say he would rather go into battle without his pistol or rifle than his long blade. True to this statement he now stood before them with his sword, lovingly called the "Ork Gutter", at his side sheathed in an ork-skin covered sheath. Aside from this if you knew the man chances are you would get on ok with him.

"We're in for a laugh today lads." He chuckled. "Just found out who happen to be sharing the area with us for billets.

"What kind of a death-trap have you got rigged up?" Bist found himself compelled to ask with genuine fear as this Catachan was famous for his sense of "humour." Very few had forgotten his last good laugh which resulted in four occupied beds in the infirmary.

Afagis shook his head slowly. "Turns out we have the _honour _of being billeted close to a batch of the Adeptus Sororitas."

Prett and Silgan began laughing and eventually Bist joined in along with them realising the only potential outcome of some confrontations between the two. Many of the younger troopers were confused, but then again they didn't know the regiment's workings as of yet. A lot of soldiers would undoubtedly make sexist remarks. It was common knowledge that while the Commissars and the colonel tried to stop these outbreaks anyone needing a remark to make but failing to find one could always ask Major Bilk, the third acting commander or even General Mklure who never seemed to have a shortage of remarks.

"Listen to me, General! This is not a matter to be taken lightly! Many of my warriors were appalled and insulted by abuse from your soldiers! What are you doing!?

The General was writing on a data slate. "I'm sorry," he smiled, "I just have to record this one." Then read out aloud what he was writing. "New record, two hours, thirty three minutes and… he checked his watch … 27 seconds before the bitch came yapping. Now what were you saying, Canoness?

The Canoness was dumbfounded she couldn't find the words to describe her shock. She opened and closed her mouth multiple times still incapable of expressing her anger. "This is not the form of attitude," she managed, "I would expect from a senior officer."

At this point a trooper came into the room took one look at the furious battle sister and one look at his regimental commander, smiling innocently, and said, "This will be brilliant. Do you mind if I watch, Glym?"

"Not at all, Barrith, take a seat. Now, Canoness Rufia, you look like something large has just been shoved up your arse. Please enlighten me as to what your problem is."

"This has to be," the Canoness whispered, "the least disciplined force in the entire segmentum possibly the whole Imperium. For one, this man," here she indicated Barrith, "not only failed to address you by rank, but used your first name to address you!"

Glym smiled almost confused as to what the problem was that had arisen then replied, "So? What's your point here? In your order punishment for that type of detail may be commonplace. However PMS is also commonplace in your order and my regiments have yet to endure that."

Barrith was now laughing as hard as he could without making a noise. Rufia was about to speak when there was an explosion outside which shook the room, an old supervisors office.

"What was that?!" She screamed

"I believe you mean; what _the fuck_ was that." Mklure replied without as much alarm in his voice as the Sister of Battle. "And it was I believe trooper Detta blowing something up. Before you start gurnin' again, yes, it is authorised I gave it authority myself. So, if you're done now, I think you should get back to your troops."

She then turned to leave but before she had gone out of the door the General shouted, "After all, the place won't clean itself!"

The door slammed shut.

"So Barrith, I believe this isn't a social visit so why are you here?"

"These reports just arrived. I was told to give them to you."

Glym took the reports and glanced over them then re-read them he hadn't been wrong the first time

"Five non-Imperial ships have been detected. They're landing in two and a half hours and about a mile from the city walls. We have to investigate. Scrounge up some transports and hand me my weapons I'm gonna get some men."


	4. Unexpected Allies

**Unexpected Allies**

Disclaimer: You already know it

They raced across the plains. Reya, unlike many hive worlds as advanced as it was, was for the most part entirely unpolluted this was because the nearly whole planet was a ball of uranium with a decently thick protective shell of lead around it. As such the planets primary source of power was nuclear and the waste well disposed of. Or at least that's what he was told and he had reason to believe the "well-disposed" meant it went towards making some poor cultist bastards life miserable and short in the form of an Imperial weapon. Right now though the General couldn't care less about matters like that. What mattered was that Reya produced weapons, men and tanks for the Imperium in large amounts so they had to defend it against the Chaos scum who were attempting to take over the place. It seemed that the first action any of the Imperial Guard got would be investigating these craft detected. Whatever came out of those crafts wouldn't stand too much chance against what was surging forth; seven Chimera Transports with ten troops each, a Salamander Command tank holding the General and another four troops, and a Leman Russ. The invaders were in for a fight they wouldn't have much chance against unless the invaders were tanks or worse much worse Chaos Space Marines. He shook the thoughts from his head these are just cultists nothing that even the archenemy would waste Space Marines trying to back up.

The Landing Site for the enemy ships turned out to be an old quarry or something like it and was littered with boulders and rock formations of varying size. Bist was thankful that the Imperials had arrived first or this would have been one hell of a fight to win. He still was unsure about how to judge the situation though. His men were new to combat and no amount of training can prepare for the psychological effects of war. Most of the other soldiers were veterans of at least one war zone. He had Silgan and Prett with him they would definitely make a good account of themselves. He also spotted some other veterans he knew there was Orlis, nicknamed Psych and a complete nut job who could barely stay still for a second so much so that he never used his lasgun preferring to use a chainsword, "given" to him by a Khorne Berserker and a powersword liberated from an enemy stormtrooper in a very nasty incident. Sharing the Chimera with him he noticed was Meric, a sniper who could hit a bulls-eye through its arse and a few along was Detta. If the enemy did have a tank or two here then Detta and Prett would make short work of it. All the same two small platoons weren't very much and some men in his Chimera were a little light headed from trooper Hox's obscura on the bright side Silgan had pointed out Hox was incredibly calm and his hands were perfectly still.

Glym called Bist and the other sergeant, a Catachan by the name of Kleece, for tactical assessment. The plans had no sooner started to be made when Afagis's scout Bedan, a perfect example of what the Catachans stood for; quiet almost all of the time and capable of cutting ten men's throats without any attention being drawn to him, appeared out of nowhere to give some advice on the terrain for the officers. All three jumped on hearing his voice which materialised before his body, it turned out that he had arrived on the hull of a Leman Russ.

The quarry, Bedan claimed, had an open space in the very centre this being the only possible landing area. The soldiers were then dispersed around that area, but they were ordered to hold their fire.

They didn't wait long. Within ten minutes the yellow skies rained down five ships. Prett knew from a glance that they definitely were not Imperial and that they definitely weren't the Archenemy's and no judgement would be more valid than his, he could tell almost any vehicles name immediately. Right now however he couldn't think of what their origins were.

"Hold your fire!" Glym's voice shouted over the vox. "Hold your fucking fire! Eldar, most likely allies!

The dropships' doors opened and thirty Dire Avengers spilled out into a defensive formation from three dropships, ten to each. One ship opened to reveal support weaponry platforms. The other stayed shut. Meric chuckled to himself, despite the fact that they were obviously well trained and disciplined he could easily have made a headshot one every single exarch present crippling the Eldar squads but as the general ordered he held his fire.

The General stood up and shouted out to the aliens. They swung around aiming their shuriken rifles but not firing a shot. One Exarch waved his mesh gloved hand and the warriors lowered their aim. He then selected two of his men and began moving forward. Mklure then selected two of his own men and stepped forward to meet the Avenger exarch in the open.

"Greetings Human," the leader of the Eldar force, "I am Elanit Dakar Lord of the Dire Avenger Aspect of Deyja Craftworld"

"Glym Mklure, General bout ye?" The Human then offered his hand.

At first Elanit seemed a little confused by the informality of the greeting however he shook the General's hand anyway.

"So?" Mklure asked. "What brings yous lot here?"

"In brief," the Aspect Lord began, "Chaos. They have attacked this world and we of Deyja are here to reinforce you."

"All thirty of you. How generous."

Dakar knew he was joking. He pointed to the unopened Dropship. "In that is a webway generator. The Farseer told us to deploy it here due to how the warp is at this current moment, I don't understand it myself. Then we were to make contact with the Imperials. I suppose it's better to meet you now though. Although I am confused. Why are there so few of you.

Glym turned his back to the Exarch and called out, "Show!" All around men threw off their camouflage cloaks revealing themselves for the first time to the aliens. The Eldar were impressed it was evident. Then the tanks rolled into view. Then the human commander turned to face his Eldar counterpart and said. "We're not goin' anywhere anytime soon then. Then let's defend this place as best as we can. I'll vox back to central command telling' them that we got some new friends here."


	5. Side By Side Fight and Fall

Side by Side Fight and Fall

Disclaimer: Same as always not Games Workshop don't own 40K. I own all Characters except Eldar who belong to Fallofavalon. Elanit Dakar is my character being an exception.

The quarry could easily be defended from attack and the Imperials and Eldar were making the best use of the land provided. They had the webway portal crackling in the centre of a well defended ring of troops hidden and protected by the rocks. However there were only about one hundred men and a tank, a decent size by some standards but if attacked by a large force they only had the cover of the land as a defence, and that would be rendered useless by mortars. Still both commanders of the defender's had been optimistic hoping that the archenemy wouldn't attack and if they did it would be an insane charge hoping to tear them apart with their bare hands. A tactic they would lose too many men to win with hopefully.

Elanit and Mklure continually checked the defences correcting were they saw weak points and strengthening morale. A few hours passed and that was when one of the greatest known enemies attacked. Not the endless legions of Chaos but the waiting which allows the soldiers time to contemplate the worst that could happen to them and the boredom which brings a slack in command. Bist knew that certain soldiers would react differently the problem is that knew recruits can never be predicted. He looked around to see how the veterans were reacting. It was predictable but he did it anyway, Silgan was fiddling with his vox-caster trying to patch into enemy transmissions, Detta was arming then disarming explosives seeing how quickly he could do it (a task which could quite easily have killed anyone else), Prett was continually running weapon checks although he knew everything was working perfectly, further down the line he could see Psych holding a game of cards against one of the gun-babies. He went down to see Psych and help the boy he was playing against get out of losing all of his money because Psych was the regiments best card player.

"Hello Psych how much has the boy lost so far?" The old sergeant joked.

"The wee bastards winning, just." He replied

"C'mon Marcus," said the "wee bastard," or are you scared to go on?"

Bist looked it was the boy he'd spoken to earlier, Hox, he, like Psych, had a lump at the back of his neck beneath the helmet. It was his hair; Bist had had a word with him earlier and told him that if ever he let his hair hang out from the back of his head in battle Commissar Stilan would give him a haircut with his chainsword an act which had been carried out before. Bist watched as Hox beat Psych and took his reward. It was the first time he'd ever witnessed Psych lose at cards. Then Hox pulled a small rolled up tube of obscura from his pocket and began smoking it.

"That could draw fire from snipers." Bist warned

Psych just pointed to the crackling Bright light emitting from the webway portal in the boy's defence. Noting his own overreacting the sergeant moved on down the line.

Bedan had been walking casually around the area, although while casual he moved silently and unseen, it was the part of his job that he loved while other soldiers made distractions to get rid of the waiting his was part of the contract. He just walked around and said if he saw anything. sneaking came naturally to him. He and the sniper Meric had been friends back on Catachan they worked together as frethid hunters in the jungles. The large reptiles had four limbs and a green/brown/dark purple skin which was very tough to break and a lot of good meat on them. It was these animals which had helped them hone their skills. Meric would wait in cover still as stone covering Bedan with his hunting rifle while Bedan would sneak quietly over to the frethid with his knife in his hand. The main problem with frethids was that they didn't run they fought and if he was seen, very rarely, that was when Meric came into play. The reptiles had skin tough enough to shrug off most lasrounds and thick enough to stop a knife. If Bedan couldn't cut its throat (the thinnest skin area) for any reason Meric had to shoot it in the eye which although quite large was still a difficult shot but a guaranteed kill. Bedan and Meric both wore suits of the skin which was as strong as carapace and very light. The hilts of both their knives were one of the creature's claws, seven inches long and as strong as steel. Bedan was snapped out of his daydream when he thought he saw something in the distance. It was probably just a bird or some other kind of wildlife but he voxed in all the same.

Glym was with Elanit when the report came over his micro-bead. He quickly ordered all men to alert positions and told Elanit to do the same. He then told Bedan to come in closer to stay alive.

Meric panned his view through the scope around the landscape. He spotted something then checked again. He was right.

"Sir," he whispered, "I got one in my sights. Almost definitely high-ranking. Do I have permission to fire?" Anticipating the answer he slowed his breathing.

"Only if you can blow the cunt's head off." The general replied

The dual suppressor was locked in place. Meric missed his old hunting rifle but the Imperial long-las Mark VI was a good replacement although Meric would never get used to it. He got his targets head in the crosshairs exhaled and fired.

Colonel Diferrion strode alongside his men singing songs of victory over the Imperials in their foul language. Suddenly the head of the trooper next to him exploded like a balloon showering him in blood, brain and fragments of skull. He laughed loudly partly because it meant there would soon be a fight and partly because his plan had worked. He had previously ordered one of his troops to switch uniforms with him for the purpose of drawing sniper fire. He shouted a rallying call over his shoulder and charged forward into battle with the four hundred men behind him, all singing their evil hymns as they advanced.

It wasn't long after Meric's first shot that the first of the enemy appeared to the Imperials and Eldar.

Bist swore silently looking at the approaching they must have been outnumbered at least 3:1 how would they hold out and how long for. Bedan dropped in beside him from over the top of the boulder he was using as cover, nodded and took up a firing position.

Silgan was hidden in a rock patch not far forward from Bist and a bit to the left. Around him were two Guardsmen an Eldar and Prett. He was always amazed at how the Cadian could hide a weapon with a barrel almost as big as him with so much ease; then again he was amazed that someone that size could _carry_ that weapon _and_ a rocket launcher _and_ ammunition for both.

Psych and Hox complained that their game ended so abruptly. Hox took up a firing stance behind the cover of a long rock, Psych just sat beside him completely hidden unable to use a gun.

Detta was crouched low near Meric with his laspistol ready in his hand and a detonator ready in the other. He had been ordered to rig the whole area where the enemy would come from. The boundary lines for the death-zones he'd made were marked in his mind. The first of the enemy stepped over one, Detta waited he had it planned he let the first few pass through the whole zone then hit the detonator. He loved demolition it had been his work back on one of the major Catachan cities. But this was a beauty he thought he must have killed at least 20 with that trap.

In actual fact it was 32 dead and three wounded Diferrion knew that this was an explosion triggered by someone who could see what was happening he'd walked through the area himself and was almost killed but escaped with only a minor cut on his calf from a piece of rock. He sang his songs of praise to the Blasphemies he worshipped louder spurring on his men fearlessly.

Meric didn't understand how the enemy wasn't being affected by the fact that their commander was dead and the traps destruction. He resolved himself to finding and when the time came eliminating enemy sergeants, heavy gunners or anything else of value to the enemy.

The first of the chaos soldiers fired then the rest fired wildly after him. A shot hit the ground a few inches behind his leg. That meant one thing. He started firing from cover Prett opened up not long after his autocannon spitting its death at the advancing enemies. Scared a little at first by the actual fighting the other three guardsmen paused before shooting back. The Eldar aimed but didn't fire he was waiting for the enemy to come into range.

Along the Imperial and Eldar lines las-fire erupted back at the common enemy. Bedan popped up fired a few shots then dropped down again. "They're kind of close now, sir" he reported to Bist. Without hesitation the sergeant swung up blasting his plasma pistol into the enemy lines.

The two commanders, Glym and Elanit, were on the opposite side of the quarry when the attack started but both simultaneously checked their weapons quickly before charging for the front line. It was obvious to the Eldar that the Imperial general wasn't reluctant to fight the enemy as most men of his rank would be. Elanit had always hated commanders who ordered soldiers to go where they themselves wouldn't but claim all the glory for themselves.

The enemy charged towards them fanatically and once again got cut down by the Eldar's volleys and Prett's autocannon bursts. Silgan realised that this charge was bigger than the previous two in the last half hour. He fired a full auto burst on the advancing enemy then his lasgun clicked dry. He reached for the ammo in his thigh pocket his hand reached around the metal clip but before he could put it in its place a heretic soldier was but a few feet away with a large sinister knife. Reacting on instinct the vox-trooper swung his rifle butt into his face dropping him to the ground before finishing him with his knife then attaching the knife to the bayonet lug. By the time he had finished he hadn't noticed that another enemy soldier was standing behind him knife raised about to stab the Catachan in the back. The heretic stabbed down.

The sniper fired again the target would be deemed inaccurate by most snipers, he blew the things arm off but any other shot would have resulted in Silgan's death and Meric liked the man. This would be a good story for later a pinpoint shot on the spur of a moment. He fired another shot at the target blowing out his chest. Beside him Detta had noticed that the defence line was pulling back bit by bit. All he noticed except for one tiny spot the spot to where Meric had just fired they would be dead if they didn't pull back soon.

Understanding what the attack from behind meant Prett told the other four he was fighting alongside to pull back. He then fired another few bursts to cover the withdrawal before pulling back himself.

Bist knew that by pulling back they were concentrating themselves and greater defending the webway portal. He swung up and fired a few well placed shots with his plasma pistol. Then he spotted something, something big and armoured.

"Sentinel walker" Bedan noted

Bist nodded, he flicked out his pocket scope and used it to examine the walker, which because of the size he could do from cover. "Standard pattern multi-laser and armoured cockpit. Shit. Most of the men have lasguns. Can't pierce the armour but the Eldar ones might sting it a bit."

The walker was now firing automatic sprays at the cluster of rocks, behind which Bist, Bedan and another seven men were sheltering. One trooper a Catachan didn't duck down in time and had his entire torso vaporized with one of the first shots. If someone didn't kill that thing soon then they'd all be dead.

A roar boomed out drowning the noise of small arms fire. The Imperial Leman Russ had fired its shell hit the sentinel directly blasting its lightweight wreckage into the air landing 12 feet back and crushing some enemy soldiers. This heightened the allies' spirits and they fought harder to defeat the enemy.

The enemies were getting closer no matter how many Hox shot down more seemed to fill their place. An Eldar trooper dropped down beside him and fired a volley of shurikens into the masses. Before Hox had time to appreciate the help this was a lasround burst through the Eldar's chest-plate showering the ground in blood. The boy was knocked to the ground when a fist collided with the side of his head. H expected a round or knife to end his life there and then, neither came, instead there was a mechanical whine and a loud static-like crackling. Psych had sprung into action stabbing his powersword into the chest of the first enemy, the one who had attacked Hox, before decapitating another with his chainsword. While Hox was attaching his bayonet as he'd been taught, the older trooper head-butted another attacker before cutting him apart with a cross-slice to the chest. Now Hox knew why he was called "Psych", he was a psychopath. The bayonet now attached the young infantry man joined the fray.

Elanit saw the second Sentinel first. It was a different pattern from the first. Most obviously the driver was more visible. He tapped a human gunner beside him and ordered him to fire at it. The guardsman looked uncertain but a quick nod from his general assured him it was the right thing to do. He was xenophobic Elanit guessed, like most of the humans on this planet, and wouldn't trust an Eldar. The human was scared, his first combat, he shouldered the rocket launcher, fired and missed he was loading another rocket when the walker fired its weapon. The young gunner was now no more than a smoking crater and those around him were thrown down by the heat of the blast. Elanit recovered first from the aftershock then Glym, then the rest of the Eldar and finally the other humans. The sentinel fired a second high power las blast from the cannon on its right side. Glym saw the beam travel straight down the barrel of the Leman Russ's battle cannon a mere millisecond or two before the tank was due to fire. The loaded shell exploded first billowing flame out every orifice in the tank's structure and killing the crew. Then the other shells exploded tearing the vehicle apart. The shrapnel from the wreckage rained down on some nearby squads killing sergeant Kleece and two others a Catachan and an Eldar.

But by now the sentinel was quickly approaching the two commanders firing its cannon. Elanit fired a quick burst of shurikens which did nothing but ricochet off the armour and armour-glass, as shuriken rounds have a habit of doing. The walker turned its aim towards the small squad from which its last attacker came from. The soldiers, human and Eldar alike dropped into the rock cover. Except for one Glym remained standing with his upright bolt pistol gripped in both hands, aimed at the sentinel. Elanit dove for him the second his single shot was fired, both landing a few feet away. The young Eldar awaited the instant evaporation from the las cannon. It didn't come. The general's bolt round had blown out the armour-glass window at the front slicing the pilot to pieces with the fragments.

Bedan and Bist were now fighting the enemy in an insane melee the scout was holding his knife point down, slicing and stabbing with the skills from his frethid hunting days. Despite his skill he couldn't keep up with sergeant Bist. The old soldier was mowing the enemy down. He scythed through a torso with his chainsword before blasting through two enemies in a single shot from the plasma pistol. A screaming cultist swung a sword for the sergeant's head. The Imperial soldier just parried the blow with his bionic arm before slicing down into his attackers head with the chainsword. After killing enough to obtain some breathing space Bedan spotted something: Enemies had penetrated the line and were heading for the webway generator!

Diferrion was at the head of the team that were now standing next to the Eldar machine. One of his men ran forward with a satchel of meltabombs before another shot him in the back of the head. The cultist then shot another two of his comrades before Diferrion ran his powersword into his chest. When he turned back to face the portal he saw someone in front of it who definitely hadn't been there before. The one before him was an Eldar wearing the rune armour of a High Farseer and pointing a shuriken pistol straight at his head. There was a split second that lasted an eternity to the Chaos colonel then the Farseer fired, the shuriken hit its target in the throat cleanly decapitating him.


	6. The Welcome Feast

**The Welcome Feast**

Note: sorry about the title being crap I just can't think of anything better to call it.

Glym sat opposite the Eldar Farseer, the one who had first emerged from the webway, on the bench of the Wave Serpent transport. He had agreed to travel on the serpent as opposed to the Imperial Salamander because he knew that if he had to fight alongside the aliens they would both have to trust one another. Agreeing to share a transport was a small yet crucial detail that could help this process along. The Farseer had removed his helmet to reveal his face. His black hair hung down to about shoulder length his face looked calm, as if he had no idea of the war that plagued the universe, but also had a tone of seriousness to it. He wore armour that marked him out as important even by Farseer standards. However he looked much too young to hold a rank as high as the armour would suggest. Realising what he had just thought to himself the Imperial laughed out loud, as he himself held command of two regiments and wasn't even thirty standard years old and this Farseer was easily seven hundred years old ((author's note: I'm assuming here that Eldar live for about 2 millennia or so)). The burst of laughter earned him a quizzical look from the Eldar. Mklure explained the reason behind the burst of laughter and the Farseer nodded in understanding. He then realised he hadn't introduced himself yet to the human.

"I am High Farseer Faerio Avalon of the Craftworld Deyja. You have my thanks for your assistance, General…" The Farseer spoke with a calm voice slightly louder than a whisper, yet it was clear and commanded authority.

"Mklure, Glym. And don't mention it."

Avalon was obviously well trained in Low Gothic because he showed no confusion at the phrase "don't mention it." Instead he said. "Tell me, General, with such a high rank, why did you join your men in battle? I thought that all human commanders preferred to keep away from the fighting where possible."

"Yeah, ye see Av; most generals prefer to avoid fighting because it's dangerous and that they find themselves in a better command position in a safe room with comfortable armchairs as far away from the fighting as possible. That and that some of them consider the fighting just to be below them. When I joined the Imperial Guard it was fight, fight, fight. I fought up the ranks. Didn't get promotions for being a nobleman, licking arses or long service records. I got them through sheer luck and on the field decisions."

Some Eldar troopers that were listening, and understood Low Gothic, were shocked at the Human's rudeness in addressing the Farseer. Avalon himself however seemed quite pleased to how the man had addressed him.

"Tell me, Glym, how soon will we be able to fight back against the common enemy that have taken the Imperial city? Or to rephrase my question how far into your plans are you and how long should they take to complete?"

Glym laughed again. "Trust me mate you don't know how human command works. Firstly tonight there's gonna be big banquet for the commanders, with drink and food 'til all the food's done. Then we go to another room and start just drinking and all the while everyone's talking politely but probably thinking "I can't stand that smug bastard I'm just laughing so he doesn't feel as stupid as he is." Then they wake up at about midday tomorrow take two hours getting dressed in the fanciest uniforms that they have, usually covered in tassels braids every single medal they've ever won in their entire lifetime and with more starch than would be possible to move properly in. Then they start addressing the reason they're here and all that. Then they start planning. A good number of them won't have a clue either because this is the first time ever Reya has suffered anything even close to an invasion. As always though priority goes to the home team and the PDF commanders can plan the whole thing with very little or even no input from the experienced veterans of war standing within an arms reach of them."

Looking puzzled the Farseer asked "Why? Why don't they ask for help the men with more experience?"

"Simple, it's because homo non-sapiens like them think about one thing. Themselves, constantly, they usually fail to see how insignificant their own ambitions are to the enemy pounding on the walls with cannon-fire."

Faerio groaned. "No he said I can't believe what I'm hearing surely no army can be run like that."

"It can't, but it is in a good number of places in the Imperium. Anyway If all you ladies and gentlemen would care to look out the window you'll see your first sights of Reya Prime. If you have a camera take a picture because in a while it'll probably be half wrecked.

The first of the transport vehicles passed under the arch-way of the north-gate at just past the seventh hour of the evening.


	7. Boiling Blood

**Boiling Blood**

The Imperial Guard has universally one favourite hobby; drinking. A high number of Guardsmen spend their time off duty drinking. Of course not all Guardsmen are alcoholics some merely drink socially or lightly. Many however spend most of their life inside the bottle because they can never forget the things they've seen. The majority however are the social drinkers, meaning of course they only drink with others which is how the common misconception of the Imperial Guard being drunkards has spread.

To celebrate the victory earlier in the day the survivors decided to explore the city for a place to drink.

"Something about this place, Prett said more to himself than anyone else, "don't know what it is, but I like it." The design of the place was pretty basic and they served most kinds of drink. Most of the drinkers regarded the four Guardsmen, Prett, Silgan, Bist and Detta, indifferently. Two groups however behind Prett and near a door marked "No Unauthorised Access" seemed to be watching the newcomers carefully and suspiciously. Detta was aware of the stares he turned to face Bist and spoke softly:

"What do you think's up their arses"

"I think they're the ones who just hate strangers. Almost every bar has them."

Silgan shook his head. "Gangs, criminals, odds are this place is probably a front for something. They're probably thinkin' we're here on policing business."

Psych had taken a shine to Hox earlier in the day. Currently both of them were playing cards at a gambling den they'd found. Both were doing well and beating the dealer, the stakes were rising. The game was rigged, Psych knew it and Hox knew it. The trick was to work out when the dealer was going to start winning and quit just before it happened. The lighting was dim and the air thick with smoke. The lights were dim so that the dealer's switches would be less noticeable and the smoke was there because Hox was taking his medication. The obscura was the reason that the two had been invited to join the card game. So far they were up 75 credits between them, they'd barely lost anything. This was a common tactic the more confidence they have the higher they bet, when they bet high dealer wins. The hands were dealt out to the players. Psych won. 125 credits up. Another dealing, Hox won, 200 credits up. Pretty soon the dealer would start cheating. The cards were dealt out. Certain he would be unseen the dealer began to switch the cards in his hand for ones hidden in his sleeve.

"Can I ask you to keep those three cards in your sleeve?" Hox, whose eyes hadn't left his own cards since they'd been dealt out, asked. There was a pause. Everyone stared at the young soldier. Then two men by the door made for Hox with small clubs raised. Psych caught one in the jaw with his fist first then ran his foot into the attackers groin, causing the man to hit the floor in a breathless scream. Meanwhile Hox grabbed the winnings (and the current bets in the middle of the table) stuffed them in his pockets and made for the door shoving past the second man, who still hadn't decided which to attack. Psych followed suit.

Prett turned to see what had caused the bang. The guarded door behind him had been slammed open a hit into the wall beside it and charging out of it were two somewhat familiar guardsmen.

"Awww shite." Psych shouted, realising that he had just run into a crowd of about ten men guarding the way-out from the other side.

"Fancy seeing you here, Mr Orlis." Detta laughed. The result was a pause in which Psych and Hox joined the other four guardsmen and four men from the gambling room joined the already larger group of fellow gangsmen. They seemed to size up the six guardsmen. Then one charged and met Bist's new left hook head-on and quickly understood the power in a bionic arm as it crushed the side of his face splintering his jaw and cheek bones. There was another pause as the remaining number of gangsmen took in the past five seconds events. Then they quickly armed themselves with whatever they could find that might be usable as a weapon including bottles, cans, clubs and brass knuckles and charged simultaneously. Most quickly saw it wise to avoid the "old man with the steel arm" because his punches were much worse than ones from brass knuckles. Prett found himself a common target guessing it was due to his height, being shorter than average gave the impression that he would be a pushover. Prett was a heavy gunner one of the few who carried all his own ammo and of the even fewer who carried two weapons over a number of years this had given him great strength and stamina. He also found that his opponents went down easily enough as the majority of his punches landed on the skeletally unguarded midsection. He dodged a swing from a club before driving his fist into his attacker's stomach. Psych was where he belonged, in a no-holds-barred melee, he quickly liberated a club from its owner when he grabbed it and head butted the owner. Now armed, he threw himself relentlessly at any opponent in sight. Both Silgan and Detta had great difficulty in not drawing their knives but Catachans tend to be built quite tough so they had no difficulty in holding their own. Silgan caught an attacker in the stomach with a kick from his guard issue boot before smashing his knee into the man's face slumping him into a concussion. Detta grabbed another by the back of the head and slammed is face into a table. Hox was in the worst condition of the lot because he didn't have quite the same amount of expertise but found that most blows he managed to dodge. He unconsciously jumped sideways as a bottle has heading for the back of his head and smashed into the face of a man about to hit him with a club knocking him back by sheer force and knocking him out.

Detta saw it first, the glint of metal, the man holding the knife dived off a table for Bist, whose back was turned. He could have killed the sergeant, had he reached him, instead he realised he was suspended in midair then his knife was removed from his hand and he was raised up a little higher. The knifeman looked into the face of the giant, twice as tall as he was and holding him in a single hand. The appearance of the thing apparently on the side of the guardsmen caused the fighting to cease instantly. The giant was the ogryn sergeant, Malk Rockbust, smart, by ogryn standards, and strong, even for ogryn standards. Malk looked into the terrified face of his catch and smiled.

"You was gonna try an' kill Bist wasn't ya?"

"N-n-n-no." The man stammered desperately trying to break free, however the ogryn's hand was firmly locked around most of his body.

"Don't make the mistake of thinkin' I'm fuckin' stupid."

"No, sir. Never would, sir." Malk seemed about to set the man down then reconsidered. He deftly threw him into the air and punched him hard. The limp form flew almost comically across the room before colliding with the wall with a sickening crunch.

In the following silence many of the gangsmen fled into the streets to get away from the men and the giant. Bist looked around; Silgan was bleeding from a glass wound in his side, Prett was bruised from blows from the brass knuckles, Detta was kneeling down doubled up in the classic "Just had the shit beat out of me" stance, he himself thought he might have a broken rib, Psych looked like he'd just had the time of his life and if he was feeling pain didn't show it, Hox however was phenomenal, he hadn't even been hit once. Two of the gangsmen were left the card dealer and another. Both reached into areas of their clothing and drew firearms, small concealable revolvers, and aimed them at the group of Guardsmen. There was a crack and a thump. The dealer fell back with his face replaced by a bloody crater and the other fell forward with a 12 inch knife buried, to the hilt, in the back of his skull, both before they'd even turned the safety off their weapons. Standing in the doorway of the bar were the sniper Meric, aiming his laspistol at were the dealers face had been mere seconds ago, and the scout Bedan with the scabbard at his side missing a knife. Bedan walked over to the corpse lying on its face, pulled his blade from the head and wiped it on the dead man's clothes before resheathing it. Meric turned to face Bist.

"We were searching for a place to drink," he said casually, "and heard violent noises from here."

"And I suppose curiosity got the better of you?" Bist finished

"I'm not complainin', Sarge." Detta gasped.

The men got ready to leave as the bartender reappeared from his hiding place. The man was trembling and when he spoke his voice was quavering and he was in shock.

"Y-You just killed some of Morza's men."

"Who's Morza?" Meric asked.

"G-Gangboss Morza."

Psych turned to face the bartender. "So?"

"M-M-Morza basically controls this city. Y-You fuck with Morza he fucks you up."

Bist smiled. "If Morza asks, tell him that if he or any of his men try anything to get back our bosses won't hesitate to have him wiped off the face of the system. If he still wants to know who was responsible here tell him he can find us at the warehouses in the western industrial sector."

With these words the nine guardsmen left the bar, empty except for the bartender watching in shock as they left.


	8. Routine Patrol

**The North Wall**

The enemy had left the cover of the forest to fire. Bist wasn't big on artillery but he knew that if one of those shells misfired and hit a tree the men firing it would be blown to hell with the gun. He swore, he swore because he was under attack but also because he couldn't fight back and had to sit here waiting to be obliterated by shell fire. The hive was safe because it had a shield over it but there was no shield on the wall battlements, that strip of rockcrete that ran around the whole inside of the wall and was about the width of a small street, difficult but not impossible for the enemy to hit from a distance. The walls seemed to shake again as the Imperial guns fired a volley back at the enemy's mobile artillery.

Watching through his sniper scope Meric counted a good hit or two and watched one of the enemy basilisk tanks flip backwards in a 180 degree spin and another one lose its main cannon to a nearby blast. The exchanges continued for a while. Almost from the start the guns of Reya Primarus were winning. They had lost one gun so far when an enemy shell hit directly into a small opening in the wall for one of the cannons to fire from, the gun had been smashed to pieces and the crew had been pulped by the concussive force of the blast. Then the infantry charged forwards. Hundreds of foot-soldiers supported by large numbers of tanks, some Leman Russ battle-tanks but mainly Chimera variants.

The enemy reached the walls of the human fortress quicker than Nioyu thought possible, they were spurred on by the fanatical rage of the Chaos. A Chimera Transport at the front of the charge charged in a straight collision course for the wall. It was a suicidal the small transport tank could not damage the thick, rockrete walls. That wasn't the intention however, hitting the slight slant of the walls the chimera took a firm grip and began to drag itself up towards the battlements. Rufia cursed she hadn't foreseen these tactics despite how often they were employed in hive-wars. The wall-crawler was nearing the top of the wall laying down a hail of fire forcing the defenders to duck for cover. Hox was ducking for cover under the wall when it rolled over the top. He stood still, frozen with fear. Something knocked him to the side, out of the path of harm. Looking back he saw it had been his platoon sergeant Bist, who was now almost under the tank and would be crushed to death in less time than it would take him to move out of the way. It seemed to Hox like a cliché from the war-movies back on Cadia, when the old veteran sacrificed his life to save the new recruit. None of these old veterans were sergeant Bist of the Cadian 22nd. The Chimera wasn't fully over the wall yet, it was balancing halfway, and this was when Bist fired his Plasma Pistol, into the unprotected under-belly. The force of the shot and death of the driver, hit by the shot before passing out through the roof, was enough to topple the vehicle slowly, almost indecisive at first, back over the wall. It fell to the ground killing the gunner and passengers with the fall.

Prett had seen Bist's heroic take out of the tank it was spectacular but it was only one of many tanks. He took aim on a Chimera to his left halfway up the wall and fired a missile into its side. The impact blew it off the wall reducing it to a fireball. He quickly reloaded and took aim on another one. A little along the wall Rufia was impressed by the skill shown by the Cadians and Catachans in destroying the wall-crawlers, the efforts of the Reyan City Guard however were less satisfactory, the Eldar tried but didn't have the bulk of firepower which the Imperials did. Some of the Samu were firing longbows down at the enemy tanks, the Canoness almost felt sorry for these simple men until she saw an arrow hit one of the troop carriers, explode and throw it off the wall. Her own troops were blasting away with melta-weapons cutting through enemy armour with ease. But they couldn't hold them forever.

Nioyu was there when the first one got on to the battlements. Its gunner dead and front view-slit melted, it reached the top nonetheless. The front ramp slammed down just missing the Eldar exarch by mere inches. Inside he saw twelve humans in matt black armour with twisted grotesque mask on their faces. He dove inside, low under the lasbolts, chainsword screaming, powerfist crackling and mandiblasters blazing. The scorpion had cleared the tank before its occupants could fire at him again. He turned to walk out the front ramp again when a lasbolt hit him in the back, dropping him to the ground. He lay there face down for a split second then rolled over onto his back as three more lasbolts hit the floor next to him and another wasted itself on his armour. Two more soldiers of the enemy had come inside through a hatch in the back. Nioyu cursed himself for not having seen it before. Snatching the pistol from his hip the Eldar opened fire, hastily but accurately. One soldier was torn to pieces by the sharp stars another slumped, breathing, to the ground. Full of the hatred for these chaos scum Nioyu readied his chainsword to slowly and painfully put this man to death. As he drew near another chaos trooper's head began to rise over the wall. The man drew his laspistol but his head was cut apart first. Then he realised how the other men had reached the top. There was a thick cable run through a motorised pulley on the inside roof of the Chimera. With one stroke the Eldar chainsword cut the cable then proceeded to finish the remaining human.

More chimeras reached the battlements and they couldn't all be killed by Nioyu. The enemy soon overran the place like roaches, except roaches don't carry lasguns. Hox was beside Bist and Silgan but other than that all he could see were the black armoured figures charging them. He began firing wildly and stabbing with his bayonet at anything which seemed to move. He soon lost what little expectation he had of survival when he realised they were completely surrounded in a bloody melee. Silgan fell with a bayonet in his gut and Bist seemed to be on the verge of consciousness. Hox however noticed he himself was barely scratched. Bist collapsed beside his doubled-over, heavily-bleeding vox-officer covered in blood. He looked into the face-mask of a cultist aiming a lasgun straight at the sergeant's head. He saw a slightly curved sword slice through the heretic's arms, rifle and head as easily as they cut the air. He turned his head to see three Samu, in their ornate armour, cut through the enemy like the mighty heroes of the Adeptus Astartes, except that while Space Marines tower over their enemies these men's eyes were level with their opponent's chests. Then Bist passed out. Despite odds of almost 10:1 the Samu, assisted by Hox, carved the attackers, cleaving armour flesh and bone with relative ease.

Glym ducked under a rather clumsy blow from a heretic then blasted out his chest with a close-ranged bolt. The fighting here was mild but Rufia was having a tough time to the west and Komotoko to the east looked like no more than a memory now. The East, most likely due to lack of anti-tank weapons, had been hit hardest. His men and the Eldar had repelled the majority of the attacks and so many chimeras were destroyed access to the wall was almost impossible. Taking a small number of men each Glym and Avalon ran east to repel the attack and assist what remained of the Samu and eastern half of the Catachan/Cadian platoon. Judix meanwhile headed west to enforce the battle-sisters.

Sister Caseria fell, her once attractive features now destroyed by fatal shots at close range. Rufia pulled Caseria's dropped meltagun over to herself with feet while stabbing her broadsword through the killer's chest. This casualty dropped the warriors with her to 6, herself included, and more enemies were charging them. With luck at least one of them might survive this wave. Their bodies were weak but their spirits were strong with the Emperor's eternal strength. None of them would give in to the heathen enemy because they knew that with their deaths they would fell many of the blasphemies. As the sisters prepared to face their deaths a roar, part hatred and part flamer belch, blasted through the air as liquid flame spewed over the enemy. The man who saved them was a Commissar of the guard with a hand-flamer in one massive fist and a power-axe in the other with guardsmen on either side. His mighty blows sundered the enemy soldiers while his flame consumed them. Judix looked like an angel of death as he roared his battle-cries and slew the enemies either side, whether by mighty blows which tore them apart or bursts of flame which left the charred husks of their former owners in their wake. Their vigour reforged, the Adeptus Sororitas threw themselves at the enemy more ferociously than before. Rufia and Judix reached the Chimeras at the same time. The Canoness sliced one with the burning hot melta beam, making sure to cut the cable. Judix, meanwhile burned the insides out of the other with his hand flamer, immolating those still inside and melting the metal cable. They continued in this manner until the siege weapons were destroyed to the last. This left only the East to be won now.

Hox was fighting alongside some Samu firing shots into the enemy or slashing them with his bayonet when the chance arose. Beside him Komotoko was fighting relentlessly he had lost at least half his men here and with the way things seemed the other half would be following soon. There seemed no end to the onslaught of enemy troops. He swayed back avoiding a slice from an enemy officer's sword and swung upwards with his own, opening the man's chest to the air. He glanced at the boy beside him. The boy was no more than 19 and the only Cadian trooper Komotoko could see and he was unhurt. The young trooper's reflexes were unnaturally good. There was almost an aura he gave off which made Komotoko uneasy. Uneasy or not the Daimyo continued to meet his opponents with relentless killing blows.

Meric stopped dead in his charge to the enemy. Beside him Prett stopped too and followed the sniper's gaze. His blood froze at what he saw. Before them just behind the bloody melee taking place up ahead were the bodies of Bist and Silgan. Some of the enemy had managed to get around behind the melee and were bayoneting each of the bodies lying on the ground to make sure they were dead. Dropping to a crouch Meric took aim and shot out the chest of one of these. Meric shot another two before he heard the tell-tale whine beside him as Prett began firing his autocannon into the same enemies.

Hox moved his body once again, miraculously, out of the way of another close range lasbolt then fired a quick burst at him. He felt a chill sweep over him. It ran up his spine and then throughout the rest of his body. It lasted less than a second but its cause was explained very quickly. A storm of pure psychic energy tore through the enemy before them melting their flesh and distorting their bodies. Looking in the direction it had come from, Hox saw the Eldar Farseer his spear pointing towards the Chaos attackers. The enemy faltered somewhat at this psychic bombardment. The Samu pressed this to their advantage as they surged forward edging ever closer to the chimeras.

With the Imperial and Eldar reinforcements preventing the enemy from flanking the Samu Prett and Meric turned their attentions to the Chimeras. Switching to his missile launcher Prett opened fire on them. Meric, lacking the firepower of a missile launcher, began trying to snipe the mechanism and wires bringing the enemy soldiers to the battlements.

Glym hit the enemy flank with an Eldar striking scorpion and two Catachans beside him. The scorpion tore them apart with his chainsword while the Catachan troops stabbed into the enemy with brute strength, numerous insults and foot long knives. The general hit into his first opponent hard with a thrust from his powersword pushing him to the ground before putting a boltround in the forehead of the black armoured soldier to his left. He then pulled the sword out of the corpse in a sweeping motion disembowelling another. His third blow was dodged and countered opening a large gash in his arm forcing him the drop the sword. Glym retaliated by clubbing his assailant in the side of the head with the boltpistol. Unable to retrieve the sword the Imperial continued to fight on clubbing with his pistol and firing point-blank.

Eventually the last chimera was destroyed. Their main attack foiled the archenemy at the foot of the wall withdrew. The last of his adrenaline used up Glym collapsed beside Avalon, sporting a nasty yet minor wound in his left shoulder. Medics were running everywhere to save the wounded and identify the dead.  
"I suppose we won." Glym managed to pant

Avalon just shook his head. "We managed to hold them off. They will be back again and we will have to fight them again."

"Same thing, it's just that my way sounds more optimistic." The general knew though that what the Eldar said was true. They would be back.


	9. The North Wall

**The North Wall**

The enemy had left the cover of the forest to fire. Bist wasn't big on artillery but he knew that if one of those shells misfired and hit a tree the men firing it would be blown to hell with the gun. He swore, he swore because he was under attack but also because he couldn't fight back and had to sit here waiting to be obliterated by shell fire. The hive was safe because it had a shield over it but there was no shield on the wall battlements, that strip of rockcrete that ran around the whole inside of the wall and was about the width of a small street, difficult but not impossible for the enemy to hit from a distance. The walls seemed to shake again as the Imperial guns fired a volley back at the enemy's mobile artillery.

Watching through his sniper scope Meric counted a good hit or two and watched one of the enemy basilisk tanks flip backwards in a 180 degree spin and another one lose its main cannon to a nearby blast. The exchanges continued for a while. Almost from the start the guns of Reya Primarus were winning. They had lost one gun so far when an enemy shell hit directly into a small opening in the wall for one of the cannons to fire from, the gun had been smashed to pieces and the crew had been pulped by the concussive force of the blast. Then the infantry charged forwards. Hundreds of foot-soldiers supported by large numbers of tanks, some Leman Russ battle-tanks but mainly Chimera variants.

The enemy reached the walls of the human fortress quicker than Nioyu thought possible, they were spurred on by the fanatical rage of the Chaos. A Chimera Transport at the front of the charge charged in a straight collision course for the wall. It was a suicidal the small transport tank could not damage the thick, rockrete walls. That wasn't the intention however, hitting the slight slant of the walls the chimera took a firm grip and began to drag itself up towards the battlements. Rufia cursed she hadn't foreseen these tactics despite how often they were employed in hive-wars. The wall-crawler was nearing the top of the wall laying down a hail of fire forcing the defenders to duck for cover. Hox was ducking for cover under the wall when it rolled over the top. He stood still, frozen with fear. Something knocked him to the side, out of the path of harm. Looking back he saw it had been his platoon sergeant Bist, who was now almost under the tank and would be crushed to death in less time than it would take him to move out of the way. It seemed to Hox like a cliché from the war-movies back on Cadia, when the old veteran sacrificed his life to save the new recruit. None of these old veterans were sergeant Bist of the Cadian 22nd. The Chimera wasn't fully over the wall yet, it was balancing halfway, and this was when Bist fired his Plasma Pistol, into the unprotected under-belly. The force of the shot and death of the driver, hit by the shot before passing out through the roof, was enough to topple the vehicle slowly, almost indecisive at first, back over the wall. It fell to the ground killing the gunner and passengers with the fall.

Prett had seen Bist's heroic take out of the tank it was spectacular but it was only one of many tanks. He took aim on a Chimera to his left halfway up the wall and fired a missile into its side. The impact blew it off the wall reducing it to a fireball. He quickly reloaded and took aim on another one. A little along the wall Rufia was impressed by the skill shown by the Cadians and Catachans in destroying the wall-crawlers, the efforts of the Reyan City Guard however were less satisfactory, the Eldar tried but didn't have the bulk of firepower which the Imperials did. Some of the Samu were firing longbows down at the enemy tanks, the Canoness almost felt sorry for these simple men until she saw an arrow hit one of the troop carriers, explode and throw it off the wall. Her own troops were blasting away with melta-weapons cutting through enemy armour with ease. But they couldn't hold them forever.

Nioyu was there when the first one got on to the battlements. Its gunner dead and front view-slit melted, it reached the top nonetheless. The front ramp slammed down just missing the Eldar exarch by mere inches. Inside he saw twelve humans in matt black armour with twisted grotesque mask on their faces. He dove inside, low under the lasbolts, chainsword screaming, powerfist crackling and mandiblasters blazing. The scorpion had cleared the tank before its occupants could fire at him again. He turned to walk out the front ramp again when a lasbolt hit him in the back, dropping him to the ground. He lay there face down for a split second then rolled over onto his back as three more lasbolts hit the floor next to him and another wasted itself on his armour. Two more soldiers of the enemy had come inside through a hatch in the back. Nioyu cursed himself for not having seen it before. Snatching the pistol from his hip the Eldar opened fire, hastily but accurately. One soldier was torn to pieces by the sharp stars another slumped, breathing, to the ground. Full of the hatred for these chaos scum Nioyu readied his chainsword to slowly and painfully put this man to death. As he drew near another chaos trooper's head began to rise over the wall. The man drew his laspistol but his head was cut apart first. Then he realised how the other men had reached the top. There was a thick cable run through a motorised pulley on the inside roof of the Chimera. With one stroke the Eldar chainsword cut the cable then proceeded to finish the remaining human.

More chimeras reached the battlements and they couldn't all be killed by Nioyu. The enemy soon overran the place like roaches, except roaches don't carry lasguns. Hox was beside Bist and Silgan but other than that all he could see were the black armoured figures charging them. He began firing wildly and stabbing with his bayonet at anything which seemed to move. He soon lost what little expectation he had of survival when he realised they were completely surrounded in a bloody melee. Silgan fell with a bayonet in his gut and Bist seemed to be on the verge of consciousness. Hox however noticed he himself was barely scratched. Bist collapsed beside his doubled-over, heavily-bleeding vox-officer covered in blood. He looked into the face-mask of a cultist aiming a lasgun straight at the sergeant's head. He saw a slightly curved sword slice through the heretic's arms, rifle and head as easily as they cut the air. He turned his head to see three Samu, in their ornate armour, cut through the enemy like the mighty heroes of the Adeptus Astartes, except that while Space Marines tower over their enemies these men's eyes were level with their opponent's chests. Then Bist passed out. Despite odds of almost 10:1 the Samu, assisted by Hox, carved the attackers, cleaving armour flesh and bone with relative ease.

Glym ducked under a rather clumsy blow from a heretic then blasted out his chest with a close-ranged bolt. The fighting here was mild but Rufia was having a tough time to the west and Komotoko to the east looked like no more than a memory now. The East, most likely due to lack of anti-tank weapons, had been hit hardest. His men and the Eldar had repelled the majority of the attacks and so many chimeras were destroyed access to the wall was almost impossible. Taking a small number of men each Glym and Avalon ran east to repel the attack and assist what remained of the Samu and eastern half of the Catachan/Cadian platoon. Judix meanwhile headed west to enforce the battle-sisters.

Sister Caseria fell, her once attractive features now destroyed by fatal shots at close range. Rufia pulled Caseria's dropped meltagun over to herself with feet while stabbing her broadsword through the killer's chest. This casualty dropped the warriors with her to 6, herself included, and more enemies were charging them. With luck at least one of them might survive this wave. Their bodies were weak but their spirits were strong with the Emperor's eternal strength. None of them would give in to the heathen enemy because they knew that with their deaths they would fell many of the blasphemies. As the sisters prepared to face their deaths a roar, part hatred and part flamer belch, blasted through the air as liquid flame spewed over the enemy. The man who saved them was a Commissar of the guard with a hand-flamer in one massive fist and a power-axe in the other with guardsmen on either side. His mighty blows sundered the enemy soldiers while his flame consumed them. Judix looked like an angel of death as he roared his battle-cries and slew the enemies either side, whether by mighty blows which tore them apart or bursts of flame which left the charred husks of their former owners in their wake. Their vigour reforged, the Adeptus Sororitas threw themselves at the enemy more ferociously than before. Rufia and Judix reached the Chimeras at the same time. The Canoness sliced one with the burning hot melta beam, making sure to cut the cable. Judix, meanwhile burned the insides out of the other with his hand flamer, immolating those still inside and melting the metal cable. They continued in this manner until the siege weapons were destroyed to the last. This left only the East to be won now.

Hox was fighting alongside some Samu firing shots into the enemy or slashing them with his bayonet when the chance arose. Beside him Komotoko was fighting relentlessly he had lost at least half his men here and with the way things seemed the other half would be following soon. There seemed no end to the onslaught of enemy troops. He swayed back avoiding a slice from an enemy officer's sword and swung upwards with his own, opening the man's chest to the air. He glanced at the boy beside him. The boy was no more than 19 and the only Cadian trooper Komotoko could see and he was unhurt. The young trooper's reflexes were unnaturally good. There was almost an aura he gave off which made Komotoko uneasy. Uneasy or not the Daimyo continued to meet his opponents with relentless killing blows.

Meric stopped dead in his charge to the enemy. Beside him Prett stopped too and followed the sniper's gaze. His blood froze at what he saw. Before them just behind the bloody melee taking place up ahead were the bodies of Bist and Silgan. Some of the enemy had managed to get around behind the melee and were bayoneting each of the bodies lying on the ground to make sure they were dead. Dropping to a crouch Meric took aim and shot out the chest of one of these. Meric shot another two before he heard the tell-tale whine beside him as Prett began firing his autocannon into the same enemies.

Hox moved his body once again, miraculously, out of the way of another close range lasbolt then fired a quick burst at him. He felt a chill sweep over him. It ran up his spine and then throughout the rest of his body. It lasted less than a second but its cause was explained very quickly. A storm of pure psychic energy tore through the enemy before them melting their flesh and distorting their bodies. Looking in the direction it had come from, Hox saw the Eldar Farseer his spear pointing towards the Chaos attackers. The enemy faltered somewhat at this psychic bombardment. The Samu pressed this to their advantage as they surged forward edging ever closer to the chimeras.

With the Imperial and Eldar reinforcements preventing the enemy from flanking the Samu Prett and Meric turned their attentions to the Chimeras. Switching to his missile launcher Prett opened fire on them. Meric, lacking the firepower of a missile launcher, began trying to snipe the mechanism and wires bringing the enemy soldiers to the battlements.

Glym hit the enemy flank with an Eldar striking scorpion and two Catachans beside him. The scorpion tore them apart with his chainsword while the Catachan troops stabbed into the enemy with brute strength, numerous insults and foot long knives. The general hit into his first opponent hard with a thrust from his powersword pushing him to the ground before putting a boltround in the forehead of the black armoured soldier to his left. He then pulled the sword out of the corpse in a sweeping motion disembowelling another. His third blow was dodged and countered opening a large gash in his arm forcing him the drop the sword. Glym retaliated by clubbing his assailant in the side of the head with the boltpistol. Unable to retrieve the sword the Imperial continued to fight on clubbing with his pistol and firing point-blank.

Eventually the last chimera was destroyed. Their main attack foiled the archenemy at the foot of the wall withdrew. The last of his adrenaline used up Glym collapsed beside Avalon, sporting a nasty yet minor wound in his left shoulder. Medics were running everywhere to save the wounded and identify the dead.  
"I suppose we won." Glym managed to pant

Avalon just shook his head. "We managed to hold them off. They will be back again and we will have to fight them again."

"Same thing, it's just that my way sounds more optimistic." The general knew though that what the Eldar said was true. They would be back.


	10. Aftermath

**Aftermath**

Arytt watched the crows. They had flocked onto the soldier almost as soon as the laspistol had struck him in the back. It seemed almost as if they had been waiting. In a way it disgusted Arytt but in another way it seemed to remind him of how he was now living, doing whatever it took to survive, except he didn't eat dead enemies. He picked up a brick from the debris at his feet and threw it at the birds, they scattered. He walked over to the corpse and plucked the ration packs from it, he'd done it too many times now to be sickened by it. Even before all this he had been a successful hitman for the gangs, during which time he often had to take tokens from his targets bodies or weapons or ammo from their bodyguards. This however was quite different because he hadn't been used to seeing the corpses grotesquely savaged by birds. The first time he'd taken a ration pack from a dead Chaos soldier he had run a few feet and been violently sick. Now he was used to it, he had looted so many of them, often having to get rid of the crows first, that it barely bothered him. It almost disturbed him how emotionless he seemed to be becoming. He stumbled into a half destroyed house through a massive hole in the wall. He was weak with fatigue, not having slept properly in days. He had managed a few short naps but no proper sleep because of fear of detection from enemy patrols. Now that he was alone his survival was more difficult, he couldn't take on platoons with large numbers of his own men. He collapsed to his knees, exhaustion getting the better of him, and began to stuff the rations he had just acquired into his mouth barely taking time to chew. He heard a snake-like slither behind him and spun around, dropping the ration pack as he did so. He located the source of the sound with little difficulty. There before him, in matt black armour and a leering face mask, was an enemy soldier with a long knife in his hand. The would-be killer jumped at the Imperial's sudden movement. Arytt lunged at his assailant grabbing the knife-hand at the wrist in his left and hand pulling it across his body while slamming his right fist, backhand, into the attacker's left side, where there was no armour. The blow to the kidney forced the Chaos trooper to drop his knife. The difficulty Arytt realised here was that while the enemy didn't wear much armour what there was gave good protection against unarmed attacks. Except for one area he realised. With his opponent still reeling from the kidney punch Arytt swung his boot to where it counted, connecting hard with the opponents groin. The man crumpled but stayed standing; this took a lot of strength Arytt guessed. Arytt himself was too weak to fight much more with the last of his adrenaline used up and an understandably feeble punch from the enemy knocked him to the ground then dropped on top of him picking brick from the ground to beat him to death with. Arytt was about to face the death when his hand wrapped around something. It was the knife he had forced the attacker to drop. Using the very last drop of adrenaline he had Arytt thrust the knife into the soldier's mask, spewing blood over the ground and himself. In a death spasm the brick was hurled from the dead man's hand hitting an inconspicuous sheet on a pile of rubble and carrying through, revealing that underneath this pile of rubble was a recess in the ground most likely made by a grenade of some kind. Grabbing food and ammo from the corpse which he the dragged outside. Arytt slid into the recession, taking care to cover it with the bed sheet again. He was lying beneath a bed covered in rubble. It was just what he needed, had it not been for the coincidence that the sheet had been knocked off no-one would ever have discovered it. Immediately, exhausted, he fell into the first proper sleep he had for days.

Bist awoke in the medical ward. As was usual, the atmosphere in the ward seemed to be of pure panic. He looked down the length of the cot to see Prett. The gunner smiled at his sergeant and nodded

"Good to see you conscious again, sarge."

"Good to see you too, Prett. I'm actually glad to be able to see anyone at the minute because it means I'm alive." Prett chuckled but it looked like there was something he was holding back. Bist noticed this. As he recalled his last memories of the fight it dawned on him.

"Silgan's dead isn't he." There was a not of expectant grief in his voice.

"Not quite, sergeant," answered doctor Tanil. "He should be though, his wounds were so severe he should be dead twice by now: Four stab wounds to the torso; two in the lungs, another missing his heart by a hairs width and a deep stab in his intestines. That isn't even taking into account three las-shots to his limbs and an autocannon round in his leg. Prett began to fidget slightly at the last one. This behaviour didn't go unnoticed. Bist looked at Prett in disbelief.

"You shot him? You shot Silgan?"

"It was only a minor scratch," the doctor intervened. "Apparently Meric and Prett defended a number of fallen soldiers from being bayoneted and Silgan got a minor scratch from an autocannon round."

"OK! So tell me Prett how has the platoon been in my absence?"

Elanit watched the banshees. He liked to watch the banshee training drills, although he was always careful not to look too interested. He sat lazily on a crate in the warehouse, his back propped against the wall. He smiled quietly to himself, knowing that no-one could see him or read his thoughts as he watched the dance, the Eldar didn't approve too greatly of that kind of thinking. Perhaps it was because of these thoughts Elanit didn't realise the human appearing at his side.

"Interesting dances," he said in a tone of casual conversation. Elanit jumped and almost fell off the crate until the human grabbed him in a strong grip steadying him.

"How did you … I didn't even hear…" Elanit fought desperately for words but shock and fear prevented them forming.

"It's my job, Eldar." He said. "Name's Bedan, scout."

"Elanit," the Eldar replied recovering his composure and extending his hand as they taught him when he was younger at the Craftworld's education shrines. Elanit had liked learning about Humans; the barbaric, uncivilised 'Mon Keigh' had a lifestyle which Elanit had always secretly liked. The Eldar were too strict too disciplined he had thought. Humans on the other hand had a much more liberal life. Only the Human clergy lead a life as disciplined as the Eldar and they chose to. In a way he guessed he envied humans but he remembered Koren, the head of the Eldar armoured divisions on Deyja and one of its more lively inhabitants telling him that those were dangerous thoughts and he shouldn't be thinking those thoughts. Bedan shook his hand and nodded a smile at him.

"The Dire Avenger Exarch who got here first?"

"Yes." Elanit replied casually, paused then added, "How did you know?"

"I was there when you arrived." The scout opened the crate at the side by a small margin and pulled two bottles out of the crate he sat on offering one to Elanit, who accepted with a nod, it had amazed Elanit when he'd learnt the uses of a nod in human culture. Bedan took a gulp from the neck of the bottle and watched the Dire Avenger take a mouthful, swallow it then flinch a bit.

Bedan laughed. "For an Eldar you can take your drink. So what were you doing here instead of doing something like the rest of your craftworld?"

"I was watching the banshees." Elanit replied, somewhat dreamily, before freezing in horror at the potential consequences of his words.

"They're not half bad." Bedan admitted. Now it was his turn to freeze in horror. "Don't tell anyone what I just said!"

"Deal," Elanit replied, "so long as you don't mention what I just said." They finished their bottles at almost the same time. "Now that is impressive drinking." Bedan admitted in awe, "It's no mean feat to finish a drink in time with a Catachan. Want another one?"

Glym had been amazed to find that so many of the Samu had survived the attack. In such a dense melee he hadn't expected so much as one to survive yet at least half had come out breathing albeit many were now being treated for severe wounds in the medical wings. That was why he was here; a large civilian airport complex cleared for use by the Samu, it wasn't much use now with a war raging so nearby no-one wanted to travel. He was with Komotoko and Commissar Judix. It didn't take him long to realise how so many of the men had survived. At a glance he could see the ranks of the Samu were made almost 100 of swordsmen and spearmen, as he knew previously, he also realised their drills. The Samu trained with their swords or spears in platoons or sparred with each other, not one seemed to be lazing about too much and even the few men who were sitting and chatting seemed alert and ready.

"There are no commissars." Glym pointed out.

"They don't need them." Judix replied almost immediately. It was true these warriors were at the level of self-discipline beyond that which could be instilled in them. The Daimyo smiled at the indirect compliment from the commissar.

"Well, Daimyo," Judix inquired, "You put a lot of focus on skill with blades. May I therefore ask how sharp these blades are?"

"Ujiko!" Komotoko called to one of the platoons of training men. After a brief pause while a few words were exchanged with one of the men, the leader of the sword drill, presumably Ujiko, came over to his leader while the men continued the drill under the one Ujiko had spoken to. When he approached the three men he bowed his head in acknowledgement to their ranks, Glym gave a little bow back more out of habit than anything else.

"This is captain Ujiko." Komotoko explained then turned to face Ujiko, "the general and commissar wish to see a demonstration of our katana's capabilities."

"Yes, my lord" Ujiko replied then disappeared momentarily returning with a lasgun and bayonet in his hands. He handed it to the two non-Samu for examination. It was a standard guard issue Mk II durable and accurate employed by many guard regiments but nothing special. The bayonet, 9 inches long and attached just below the barrel, was similar, reasonably strong and sharp but nothing overly impressive or expensive. Having been examined Ujiko placed the rifle between two chairs making sure it was secure. Then with his sword, or katana as Komotoko had called it, he slashed, one slash no more, at the rifle. Judix and Glym weren't overly impressed at first it was a common bravado to cut a lasgun in two to show strength and blade sharpness. Then the two men froze. Ujiko hadn't cut the rifle in two. There, on the ground at the captain's feet, lay half of the bayonet. They stood in awe, temporarily lifeless, before recovering. Still both were silent until Judix managed a simple "Incredible".

Smiling, Komotoko continued as if nothing special had happened: "Now gentlemen if you would come this way. There is someone I think you should meet."

Detta knew he shouldn't be here, but he just couldn't help the desire. He wasn't going to destroy anything. It was all for reference, but all the same… The Eldar tanks were impressive. He crept over to the hull of one of the beautiful vehicles. It was smooth and almost seamless in construction. He ran his hand along the regal blue armour. It wasn't metal, that much was common sense, but Wraithbone the Eldar made everything out of the stuff. The demolitions expert was lost in wonder at the barely possible aerodynamics of the alien grav-tank. He spun around and whipped out his laspistol in one fluid motion as he felt, rather than heard, something behind him. The Eldar drew his shuriken pistol at the same time and, simultaneously with the Catachan, stopped himself from firing.

"What are you doing here mon… human!" The Eldar ordered

"Just looking. You don't mind do you?" He couldn't quite detect the expression on the alien's face. He prayed to the Emperor that it wasn't one that resulted in pulling the trigger. The shuriken pistol was lowered and Detta began to breathe again. Then he extended his hand.

"Detta, Demolitions."

"Koren, Tank Commander. As I assume you want to know what you are standing beside is a Deyja craftworld Fire Prism Falcon variant. Feel free to examine it just please tell me what weaknesses you discover." After the Fire Prism Koren went on to show the rest of the Eldar war machines to the Catachan demolitionist who in turn shared his observations on the tank weaknesses. Koren, Detta noticed, did not seem overly concerned that this human was examining each one of his precious tanks in order to discover its weakness nor did he seem too arrogant. Then again he thought after Reya there was almost no chance that the two would ever meet again.

Morza was furious. For once some bastard had a stronger gang than he had. Worse still he had been insulted by the attack on his men. This was the worst massacre he'd known in his life and he'd planned quite a few. If he hit back it could be seen as an attack on the Imperial Guard and they were rarely ever gentle in retaliation. He'd have to hit back in a different more cunning way. He sat at his desk for a while and ran his ringed fingers through his greying hair. Then he stood up smiling and looked out of his window on the sprawling hive city beneath him 57 stories down and the crackling energy shield above his head. He was forming a plan to gain revenge on those off world sons of bitches and he knew that it would work, in fact it couldn't fail. He lit a thick cigar and began choosing his hitmen in his mind.


End file.
